An electric, walk-behind floor scraper is ideal for small and large projects alike, able to efficiently and effectively remove all types of flooring, including:

  • Carpet
  • Linoleum
  • Vinyl composition tile (VCT)
  • Vinyl plank and sheet
  • Wood
  • Laminate
  • Rubber coatings

If you plan on adding this to your equipment inventory and you want to get the best results, it’s important to know how to operate your electric floor scraper correctly. To help you, we’re sharing some best practices to get you started.

Choosing the Right Blade for Your Floor Scraper

Before you get started, consider the flooring you need to remove to choose the right blade. Scraper blades are either flat or “self-scoring” and have u-shaped upward-angled sides that are incredibly sharp. Flat blades are ideal for cutting laminate, vinyl, and linoleum, while self-scoring blades work well for soft coverings like carpet as it saves you from having to score the carpet into strips before hitting it with the scraper.

Positioning Your Walk-Behind Floor Scraper Blade

Once you have the right blade picked out, you’ll want to install it onto the floor scraper. To effectively remove the floor covering without damaging the subfloor, make sure you place the blade in a way that works with the subflooring itself. If it’s a concrete slab, make sure the bevel at the front of the blade is facing up, and when you adjust the angle of the blade, you’ll want a steeper angle. If the subfloor is wood, you’ll want to place the bevel facing down, and adjust the angle to be shallow to avoid gouging into the wood. It’s important to note that some gouging into a wood floor may be unavoidable.

Determine how you want to place the blade, and put on gloves before installing it to avoid injury. Making sure the equipment is unplugged, you’ll loosen the bolts on the tool holder of the striking mechanism, carefully place the blade, and then tighten the bolts back in place.

Operating Your Floor Scraper

Once you have the blade installed, adjust the height on the drawbar if applicable to your equipment. On a ROLL RO-2 or ROLL RO-3 stripper, the drawbar is multi-adjustable and the joystick can e adjusted and adapted to the operator’s comfort level. Once the settings are in place, adjust the height and angle of the blade and put on eye and ear protection.

Finally, plug in the equipment, turn the rotary switch to the ON position, and begin moving forward at a slow, steady pace, making sure the blade is catching under the floor covering. If you have trouble catching under the covering, use a corner of the blade to get underneath, then straighten out the path and move forward in a straight line.

Get a Quote for a ROLL Walk Behind Floor Scraper

ROLL makes high-quality, long-lasting floor scrapers you can rely on to help you get the job done right. To learn more or to get a free quote, speak with a member of our customer service team by calling us at (815) 472-9740 or by filling out our contact form to get started!